Poland's opposition parties agree on coalition
Almost four weeks after the parliamentary elections in Poland, the victorious alliance of three former opposition parties agreed on Friday to form a joint government. In the election on October 15, the liberal-conservative Civic Coalition (KO) led by former EU Council President Donald Tusk, together with the conservative Third Way and the left-wing alliance Lewica, won a clear majority in the Sejm, the lower house of parliament.
At the public signing of the coalition agreement in the parliament building in Warsaw on Friday, Tusk said that this was "good news full of responsibility for our homeland". The alliance is ready to take over the government as soon as it receives an official mandate to form a government. "We have agreed on four years of good, hard work and solidarity," he told journalists.
Robert Biedron, deputy leader of the left, announced that one of the first measures after taking over the government would be a new abortion law. Poland currently has an extremely strict abortion law, which only allows abortions in a few exceptional cases such as danger to the woman's life.
PiS strongest force in parliament with 194 seats
A few days earlier, however, President Andrzej Duda had further delayed the transfer of power with a controversial decision. On Monday, the head of state gave the previous prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki from the national conservative PiS, the task of forming a government. The head of state justified this move, which was criticized by the victorious opposition, by stating that he had followed the good parliamentary tradition of appointing a representative of the strongest parliamentary group to form a government.
Although the previous governing party PiS became the strongest force in parliament in the election with 194 seats, it fell well short of an absolute majority and has no coalition partner. The opposition three-party alliance, on the other hand, won 248 of the 460 seats in the Sejm. This means that Morawiecki's attempt to form a government is most likely doomed to failure. Duda had previously set the date for the constituent session of the new parliament for November 13 - almost a month after the election.
In response to Duda's appointment of Morawiecki to form a government, the opposition alliance expressed their doubts due to PiS falling short of an absolute majority. Despite PiS being the strongest force in the parliament with 194 seats, they lack a coalition partner. This situation contrasts with the opposition alliance, who won 248 seats in the election and are in a position to form a government with Donald Tusk leading the coalition.
Source: www.dpa.com
